Unarmed Teen Shot in the Chest in Front of His Mother

[Akua Ma'at]

Unarmed Teen Shot in the Chest in Front of His Mother | Your Black World

An unarmed teen in the Bronx was shot dead by police, right in front of his mother. Ramarley Graham, a 19-year old boy, was shot in the chest as he ran into his mother’s apartment on Thursday afternoon. Police are saying that they thought the teen was grabbing a gun when he adjusted his waistband.

“They chased him into the house,” his mother Constance Malcolm, 39, told the Daily News.

“Nobody deserves to be shot in their own home.”

The teen was then rushed to the Montefiore Medical Center, where died soon thereafter. Police had approached Graham when they saw him doing a drug deal on the street. That’s when he ran away to the Williamsbridge Apartment complex. The officers were behind him when he ran into the bathroom to flush the marijuana down the toilet.


Police Commissioner Ray Kelly says that he doesn’t believe there was a struggle before the young man was shot.

“Show me your hands! Show me your hands! Gun! Gun!” This is what Kelly says the officers yelled at Graham as they proceeded to shoot him.

“We need to continue to gather facts at this juncture,” said Kelly. “We see an unarmed person being shot. That always concerns us.”

The two officers involved in the shooting have been placed on restrictive duty.

This is not the first teen shooting of the week. On Wednesday, Chicago police shot a 15-year old autistic child who pulled out a butter knife.

[Akua Ma'at]

NYPD Officers Shoot and Kill Three Black Men in One Week - COLORLINES

Ramarley Graham, 18, was shot and killed by a NYPD officer in the Bronx on Thursday afternoon after running into his home as undercover officers pursued him. He’s the third person the NYPD have killed in a week. According to the police spokesperson, he was unarmed.

Paul J. Browne, the New York Police Department’s chief spokesman, said there was “no evidence that he was armed” when the officer, a member of a narcotics unit, shot him once in the upper left chest, the New York Times reports.

The Graham shooting is the third time in a week that a member of the NYPD had killed a suspect. On Jan. 26, an off-duty police lieutenant shot a 22-year-old carjacking suspect in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn. And on Sunday, an off-duty detective shot a 17-year-old in Bushwick, Brooklyn, during a mugging, authorities said.

In Graham’s case, police found a small bag of marijuana in the toilet at the home he entered after the pursuit, the NY Times reports. “It’s likely the story will thicken and the NYPD will argue the cop acted in self defense, but right now it looks like the cops killed a kid trying to get rid of a little pot,” said Seth Freed Wessler, Colorlines.com’s investigation reporter.

“Despite directives from the NYPD Commissioner to stop arresting people for simple possession of marijuana, the NYPD actually conducted more marijuana arrests in 2011 than in the previous year,” Wessler said.

In New York City, marijuana arrests strike people of color the hardest. Last year the NYPD made a near-record number of low-level marijuana arrests, making 2011 the second-most prolific period for marijuana arrests in NYC history. Close to 87 percent of those arrested for marijuana were black or Latino, while only 10 percent were white.

“The daily practice of harassing black and Latino kids with stop and frisk policing and then arresting them for simple possession of pot would be bad enough even if it did not lead to shootings. In this case in the Bronx, it looks like the day-to-day drug war left this 18-year-old kid dead,” Wessler said.

[asarhondo]

Thanks for posting this. The malaise and apathy that is being shown by Africans in New York is a product of a perfected "White Supremacist" system. The deaths of so many young Black males in the New York City area is not unprecedented, it is a regular occurrence, supported by whites, maintained by uneducated Blacks [and of course white people] (men and women) who work specifically within the state agencies, especially the police and correctional departments to marginalize Black people, especially Black males.

What can be done? I marched when Sean Bell was shot. Didn't feel any better after doing it, indeed, I felt that "our" time could have been put to better use. But who can lead a group that has so many agents working for the enemy, consciously and sub-consciously? New York unfortunately is a very, very, very dangerous place for Black people. Your rights can be spit upon and your only retort is a lawsuit, that can only be won by well connected white people who receive 1/3 of the payment. Thus, Black man and woman (victims of police violence) are used as the product in every stage of the White supremacy prison industrial system and most of the time they are either "killed softly" or killed immediately for the benefit of the white minority.

I left New York over 2 years ago, will never go back. I have realized that one not be a functioning Black man in a white supremacist strong hold.
Nonetheless, here comes the out cries; I doubt there will even be people marching. The white media will down play and the Black press which most contemporary Blacks follow will touch with "soft hands".

White people only understand violence. Marching will do nothing.